Ask - Plant leaves have the ability to use carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Could this process be replicated by a man-made material? This material could be used to improve air quality in cities, in houses and offices, and even on spacecraft to extend voyages.
Imagine - How do plants do it - convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen? How could plant "factories" - cholroplasts, be used to do the work? What kind of material would be necessary to hold the choloroplasts in a form that could then be incorporated into wall covering?
Design, Build - What is needed for a man-made leaf to to function? How can the sunlight be directed to the material? Where does the CO2 come from? How can the oxygen be captured for later use?
Improve - These are still just ideas with some small working examples. How can this be scaled for practical use outside the test environment?
photosynthesis
light dependent reactions
chloroplasts
silk protein
What's the problem?
[http://www.teachertube.com/video/man-made-leaf-that-could-enable-humans-to-colonise-space-365541|Man-made leaf that could enable humans to colonise space]] (video 2:54)
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